Fellow Australian teeanage ace Alex de Minaur is in a much better frame of mind to step up to the challenge of men's 19th seed Tomas Berdych.

But while de Minaur, 18, is in career-best form after semi-final appearances in Brisbane and Sydney, the big-serving Czech has a strong pedigree, as he showed in winning the Tie Break Tens event against Rafael Nadal on Wednesday.

Matthew Ebden, Jason Kubler and Ajla Tomljanovic must also play seeds first up.

Top-ranked Australian Nick Kyrgios was the big draw winner, opening against world No.100 Rogerio Dutra Silva, with third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov and eighth-seeded Jack Sock his likely main impediments to a semi-final appearance.

And while Barty, Australia's leading woman, might like her first-round opponent, who is ranked 69th, it soon gets tougher.

Red-hot Italian Camila Giorgi awaits in the second round, with Halep a possible fourth-round foe.

Thanasi Kokkinakis might have found a manageable pocket of the draw but will face a stern test against fellow next-gen star Daniil Medvedev first up.

And there might just be another couple of Australians joining the nine local men and eight Australian women in the first round.

On Thursday, John-Patrick Smith and Bradley Mousley won through to final-round qualifying matches.

They could be joined by Bernard Tomic, should he beat American Tommy Paul on Friday.